the proposed new law banning u.s. citizens from adopting russian children gets a second reading in the country's parliament details just ahead here on r.t. . president barack obama backs the renewal of a ban on assault weapons in the u.s. off of the massacre of twenty children at the sandy hook elementary school. holed up in the ecuadorian embassy in london for six months the world's top whistleblower . is to deliver a christmas message to his personal aspirations for the years to come.

online on screen and now in international news and comment live from moscow this is . russia's that duma rezin the second reading of a bill which if passed will prevent u.s. citizens from adopting children from the country the action is said to be part of moscow's response to washington applying sanctions against a list of russians as part of the so-called magnitsky act for all the details on this let's go live now to even a pissed off who is at the russian state duma you were explaining how this. law is linked to the case of magnitsky. well just a reminder sort of game of can you give us the russian lawyer who was suspected of large scale tax evasion he died in prison before a court could make

a decision on his case he's seen by many in the west especially in the u.s. as a victim to various human rights violations in russia and recently america lawmakers passed to the so-called magnitsky act which allow sanctioning russian officials suspected in the u.s. of being connected to human rights violations in russia in moscow by many of fishel this law is seen as anti russian and the legislators here in the state duma have been working on what they say will be a proportionate response and besides sanctioning american citizens for thought to be connected with violations of the rights of russian citizens many deputies are pushing for the draft to also include a ban for american citizens like it was up to washington adoption had become quite a heavy issue in the relations between moscow and washington who could be so many cases of abuse and sometimes even death like the story of twenty one months

old the activity of russian boy who was adopted by an american couple and he died after his adoptive father left him in a locked car on a hot day and actually some deputies are proposing for this draft to be named after the boy or another case when an american adoptive mother put her child on a plane back to russia carrying only north and. some underwear with him all this is causing outrage here in russia but not only the pieces themselves but also a lack of a proper reaction from american authorities to prevent these cases from reoccurring including the lack of heavy jail sentences. you know what kind of reaction did this receive from the public here in russia. this draft has already become a source of heated debate both in the society and among russia's political elites of the deputies of the state duma are truly showing hardline approach on the issue

we've just heard from the president secretary who said that the executive powers policies are a bit more balance that what we're seeing here in the state duma but at the same time that vladimir putin understands why the deputies are being so motional due to the evident and the russian rhetoric seen from some members of the international community we've also heard from several ministers including the foreign minister who spoke against introducing the the general ban on adoption although everybody agrees that those responsible for the violation of human rights especially children they do have to be punished so this debate is still continuing in the state duma and well as it reviews the draft but of course in the end it's still going to be up to the president whether to sign it or not. live from the

russian state duma thanks very much indeed you know. prison barack obama has made a move towards stronger gun control in the u.s. the proposal comes after the mass shooting at the sandy hook elementary school the lives of twenty six people including twenty children he voiced support for an initiative to renew an expired ban on assault weapons and the creation of a new law to tighten gun sales regulations report has the details. when you consider the tragic events that unfolded at an elementary school last week in the us it is not surprising that finally u.s. president barack obama is taking a position that would reinstate a ban on assault weapons in america now the last federal assault weapons ban which expired in two thousand and four prohibited the manufacturing of eighteen specific models of semiautomatic weapons along with the manufacturing of high capacity ammunition magazines that could carry more than ten rounds now according to white house spokesman jay carney obama would also support legislation that closes

a so-called gun show loophole that has allowed some weapons to be sold without criminal background checks of the buyers since obama has been president for mass shootings have taken place but until now critics say that obama has skirted the issue of federal gun control last week's massacre at that elementary school in newtown connecticut claimed the lives of twenty innocent children ages between six and seven and also six staff members were killed in the gun control advocates say it's a shame so many lives have been lost before u.s. leaders finally got the ball rolling on legislation in real largest firearms maker in the u.s. also announced on tuesday that it's being put up for sale by its owner freedom group international is the maker of the bushmaster rifle the weapons thought to have been used in friday's connecticut massacre shares in publicly traded gun makers have been dropping for a third straight day there's also been reports of

a large spike in gun sales in recent days because many believe that the federal government will in fact enforce stricter gun control well we'd like to know what you think could be done to reduce the number of deadly shootings in the u.s. you can logon to a website military dot com to take part in our latest polling there on screen we can see there's a time between those who think that the media should be forbidden to the hunt the massacres and those who believe that this second amendment would prevent any measures to. guns fewer of you claim harsh new gun laws and restrictions could help curb the problem in the minority puts faith in the increase of security in public places go online to have you say to me. he's already announced his intentions to run for parliament in australia but what else is on julian assange his agenda for twenty thirteen cooped up in the ecuadorian embassy in london for six months so far the top whistleblower is set to deliver a christmas message outlining his plans for the year ahead. sara first reports.

it's been six months to the day since julian a son's thought refuge behind the doors of the ecuadorian embassy it was a bid to avoid extradition to sweden where he's wanted for sexual assault allegations that he continues to refuse to travel to sweden because if it will be extradited to the u.s. america investigating the wiki leaks website for publishing documents including dossiers on the wars in iraq and afghanistan now despite having twenty four hour round the clock police protection it's been a busy six months that julian assange we've had him publish a book we've seen concerns over his health we seem to live in a sound addressing world leaders as well as giving a number of personal exclusive interviews to see and of course we've had the ongoing protests and vigils in support of both julian assange and the wiki leaks website and in the next couple of days julian the sun is expected to give

a christmas address normally the territory of monaco but in this case julian assange to be summing up his own going predicament and outlining his plans for the year ahead now what is set to come remains relatively unknown we seen the dramas unfolding over the last six months so you can be pretty sure it will be unpredictable there's a lot of rumors a lot of talk at the moment that we could see in twenty thirty julian assange is running for the australian senate and forming his own wiki leaks political party well those will be the next steps and of course r.t. is going to be there every step of the way taking you through this ongoing story. greece prepares for yet another twenty four hour standstill as people protest against growing cops and the disintegrating economy the details all matter just ahead here altie. already lost all three space been falling but farewell to their families and gear up for a five month trip to the stars and they just addition to the space station team is

set to lift off from kazakhstan. shortly here. the riney that takes your breath away through eating across the sky is always a mohnish good you know the biggest salt lake in europe and more than two hundred species of birds but also it is them are on the verge of extinction on these islands in the south of russia they find shelter before migrating to other parts of the world paladins as well as other species of the monish who do low feed and face these words are waiting for their parents to bring them food to the best cash for them is in a small area of the lake where the water is relatively fresh as fish cannot survive in the salty

a part of the money and the lakes getting sold here every year the monish the dealers and all two fish oil reservoir which was filled in the nineteen fifties in the areas hot climate the water evaporates quickly and the local saw as natural saltiness takes over a call from birds the drying out of the lake cool so striking one of the world's biggest populations of muslims. there more than four hundred of the animals here theory's a protected wildlife reserve it's a place of peace and calm in recent decades dozens of canals have been dug around here to cultivate the. local staps broad grassy plains this may be useful for humans but it is badly hit many species of the animals here for instance so i guess antelopes just some forty years ago there were more than two million saigon antelopes living in asia and they lead nowhere else in the world but now people brought the species to the brink of extinction. this region has been for thousands

of years but now in a relatively short space of time it's my brain diversity of creatures this threatened all fronts by man and. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realized everything you thought you knew you don't i'm trying hard to compose a big picture. welcome

if you just joined us this is all to live here in moscow. moscow says it's doing everything possible to bring about the release of two russians kidnapped in syria on monday being held for ransom by suspected rebels who also seized an italian citizen and other hostage a ukrainian journalist remains in militant hands with a deadline passing on a fifty million dollars price tag for her life meanwhile a news crew working for a u.s. channel have escaped after several days in captivity this comes as fighting

intensifies across the country in the capital damascus rebels a locked in battles with palestinian militias who support the syrian government some observers blame the violence on foreign meddling. terrorist groups or library kidnappings for financing so does true of park in latin america it's true of. terrorist groups so that in many other places. they already have world attention and with that financing as always they are terrorists or if there is the goal of the enemy is that syria is going to divide it into many pieces so you won't have a syrian anymore you have there is where you have a kurdish just for sure and you have no other sections and you have all these opposition members fighting against each other for the troll i mean you know that the muslim brotherhood hate goons from around the world all want to impose their own totalitarian system on the what's left of the of syria. ratings

agency standard and poor's as raise the credit rating of greece's sovereign debt is comes just hours before a planned twenty four hour nationwide strike as people continue venting their frustration at biting cuts among the athens received a fresh trying to bailout funds from the e.u. and the international monetary fund however as one expert says despite the much anticipated cash the great economy is fall from salvation. the fact that the ratings agencies get a higher rating to be from than that they're going to. indicate what happened is that right now the international community i am not the c b in the. wars of austerity which makes investors happy but of course makes the people angry and so you can see this going on and people a lot of people getting very upset in greece while the best a community is relatively happy because there's more greater safeguards that their money is going to be returned in the form of bonds so i think that you're going to

continue to see the exact where he'll go up and the people are happier but the investor community is left and then we're going to have work to do the right play you have more austerity making people more angry and more right at the more protests and more strikes and that investors feeling more secure. in the bombs that they buy in greece even money this crisis is far from over we never solve the basic problem over. the europeans and yet to solve the basic problem that the european. countries are insolvent simply do not have the money to pay back all the money that they have borrowed and because of that which is incomparable we are going to come to a day of reckoning at some point you should come when is that they going to happen and how far will your p.m.c. or crabs be to keep the can down for growth. an independent panel tasked with investigating september's deadly attack on the u.s. consulate in benghazi has revealed that systematic failures at the state department

were behind these security breaches at the mission the assault claimed the lives of the american ambassador to libya and three other u.s. officials it happened as violent demonstrations over an islamic film made in america began sweeping across the arab world and it was believed the attack had developed out of a similar protest over this report suggests the incident wasn't preceded by any protests it appears to have been a terrorist attack was. decided by the dominique strauss calm will stand

thirty degrees celsius and several preflight traditions of had to be canceled but the team hopes some music will keep things on a high note as tom barton reports. a farewell guitar music was in the air as the next crews the international space station said last goodbyes to. its being called to do so and i said his next commander chris hadfield and actually when we're sitting on the launch pad inside our soyuz there will be music playing both to to warm up our bodies and to warm our hearts while the music will be a comfort there was months of work ahead on the station preparing a launch is like a technical and scientific symphony no rockets and an all history of engineers around them chewing up for the main over. for the families this time is as nerve

wracking as it is exciting chris hadfield's wife say she'll still feel connected to him what is up there again for music but like really if you're here if you'd like to be playing cellmates music because they get it you good part of it life and then you were part of it life so they were sure they will play lots of. surveys so yes there's a speck corner on me i assess for a trustee guitar. but being away from home at the most special time christmas surely that is talked. when i'm up in space i start to feel homesick i'll probably do what i do on earth and that is to. to open up my guitar and. play songs that are important to me we shouldn't feel too sorry for chris thomas as well as enjoying music you know be able to look down on her as we celebrate so it's seasons greetings from our sweet sounding space merry christmas

happy new year. tom watson r t baikonur. will be broadcast in the launch live here and also online so don't miss liftoff at twelve minutes past. midday g.m.t. and you can learn more about the mission at r.t. dot com. also there online it's revealed that the british spend over one hundred thirty million pounds a year on phone calls to find out how much tax they have to pay. thousands of marched on the presidential palace in cairo as egypt's opposition continues to protest against the proposed constitution which is backed by the president and the muslim brotherhood the document is being criticized for being islam ist which many fear could limit people's social freedoms whether the draft will prevail is being decided to stage a referendum which kicked off last saturday preliminary results show most egyptians have voted in favor of the new constitution but opponents claim the poll was

tainted by mass irregularities the country's justice ministry has ordered an investigation into allegations of widespread vote rigging political analyst oh man a sharpie believes that the only going division over the constitution is only deepening the wide cracks in egyptian society there is a very strong division within egypt today between egyptians who are more of a group of egyptians that are more towards an islamic system a predominantly islamic religious hardline system in egypt and another group that has also a lot of supporters if you want to have a democrat or more of a secular. president morsi is saying that he's presenting a democracy that he wants to lead the country and he wants to be able to do with a more democratic system but his actions so far have not proven to be. compliant

with the state well it's leading to more tension you had a lot of violence in the past week in the streets clashes in the streets the country's economy is not picking up food is getting poorer and poorer the whole system collapsed the government the public administration and the infrastructure of the country. he is really suffering from. shortages that the violence is spreading to other parts of the country and i think that this shows that mr morsi and his administration do not have the potential to provide the stability that is needed and on the other hand they do not answer be a separation of the groups of people who took to the streets in the past and who were able to overthrow the previous regime so he's acting in a way that is very similar to the previous regime in fact well that's the way it is for the moment here on our t.v. i'll be back with a news team and more news for in the about forty minutes from now the meantime abby martin takes on the mainstream media in breaking the set stay with us because.

trimmings in this story even for specialists how a voice can produce several sounds at once but we didn't use the art of throat singing comes naturally picked up like a language. a language of communicating with nature it said that's where throat singing originates from to the news believe not only animals but also surrounding objects like reverse forests and even stones of souls imitating the sounds they believe assumes to capture the power of nature.

there are special instruments that accompany the singing if gainey says there is even a legend about his instr. and a guild it says once there we have to poor shefford who had the best horse that won every competition but jealous people killed it on the horse was revived as an instrument. of so pitiful is because of the spirit of the horse going to his dream he said make an instrument from a tree the sounding board from the leather of my face the strings. and to remember me make an engraving of my head of the instrument he did so i called the instrument again you which means come back and this melody on these human is called. the.

two boys one of the most famous groups in the republic their next goal is to tour pro world they say for you are peons it is difficult to pick up and sing so i asked them to teach me see if i can do it for you share with the junior. cero you shared their order that was sure to say can you know who was to take gang are all. the but now it is the and moody part of the song and not the actual throat singing which i wouldn't even dare try to repeat. so maybe you have to be born here to be able to sing like this i thought so until i met she looks like it to vini and i don't even speak their language but she is from japan. most s.

too far in my answer that she planned from two hundred years ago until so happy here she's not planning a professional singing career but she keeps practicing just because it's become part of her nature. if you live on one hundred thirty three bucks a month for food i should try it because you know how fabulous i'd like. to eat i mean. i know that i would be really nice. and we're all for it so personally apologize if that. worst you were to live through the white house or the . radio guy minestrone. what your clothes were about to give you never seen anything like this until.

hello i'm out in march and this is breaking the set today i want to talk to you about co-leader el masri a german citizen who was kidnapped off the street by the cia on new year's eve in two thousand and three while he was vacationing in macedonia a monster was secretly held without any communication for twenty three days after which he was transferred to afghanistan under the u.s. government's extraordinary rendition program and there he was tortured he was abused for four months after he was finally released almost three tried to sue the u.s. government two thousand and six but the case was dismissed on the grounds of quote state secrets to shock right but the complete destruction of the innocent man's life was all because he happens to share a name with the so-called al-qaeda operatives and after winning a case of the european court of human rights for the very first time the cia

activities against detainees has been formally declared as torture well it's what we already knew but how did american government react to the ruling in one big wall ups without the slightest hint of an up. paula gee and the payout to this poor man was less than two hundred thousand dollars to ruin his life all of which came from the macedonian government it's a small price to pay for participating the destruction of countless innocent lives in the global war on terror if this kind of collateral damage makes your blood boil to draw me to break the set. what. were you ever seen anything like that. last week one years since the u.s. government announced an official end to the mission in iraq a day that president obama was very proud to tout. so as your commander in chief

and on behalf of a grateful makes i'm proud to finally say these two words and i know your families agree welcome home. and today is actually one year exactly since the last convoy of heavily armored u.s. troops left the country that was the point at which according to u.s. ended the nine year war it is the war really over about the security contractors about the iraqis who are now left to pick up the pieces of their war torn land a land that's now plagued by devastated infrastructure poor health a weak government and a teetering economy so here to talk to me about iraq as it stands today i'm joined now by dolly awasthi iraqi american activist and editor of liberate this dot com along with her husband roscoe activist and director of the justice for fallujah project thank you so much both of you for coming on.